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Freedom And Confinement In Never Let Me Go (Freedom (Freedom is so…

There is a sense of little to no freedom for the clones in the novel as the book progresses, when you find more about the true reasons as to why they were brought into the world.

Freedom was never truly an aspect of Never Let Me Go, however the clones (students) seem more 'free' when they're sent to the Cottages. This is because they then get to go out and drive etc.

"If you'd told me then that within a year, I'd not only develop a habit of taking long solitary walks, but that I'd start learning to drive a car, I'd have thought you were mad."

As the students (clones) become carers and donors freedom seems like less of an option at this point in their lives.

They become weighed down by work that they wish for freedom yet they seem to know in the backs of their minds that it'll never happen. This leads them to eventually almost give up hope.

Freedom is so restricted throughout a clone's life that when they reach the Cottages and see the old arrivals going on trips, they are almost frightened at that aspect of going out.

"Of course, in practice, especially during the first months, we rarely stepped beyond the confines of the Cottages. We didn't even walk about the surrounding countryside or wander into the nearby village."

"That summer we arrived, we were constantly seeing veterans packing their bags and rucksacks and going off for two or three days at a time with what seemed to us scary nonchalance. We'd watched them with astonishment, wondering if by the following summer we'd be doing the same."

"You have to remember that until that point we'd never been beyond the grounds of Hailsham, and we were just bewildered."

Confinement

The clones (students) in Never Let Me Go are very isolated and confined within Hailsham as children to grow up away from the world around them

The clones were created to donate their vital organs and so are banned from having anything to do with the outside world.

This is because they're too 'valuable' to be harmed. At first it seems like this is out of care however as the book progresses it becomes more and more apparent it's for medical reasons.

“"You've been told about it. You're students. You're… special. So keeping yourselves well, keeping yourselves very healthy inside, that's much moreimportant for each of you than it is for me."”

However, the treatment they received at places like Hailsham is a lot better than what they may have had if Hailsham had never existed

""You Hailsham students, even after you've been out in the world like this, you still don't know the half of it. All around the country, at this very moment, there are students being reared in deplorable conditions, conditions you Hailsham students could hardly imagine.""

Confinement in Never Let Me Go is existent because...

One reason is to keep the clones safe and their bodies away from harm in order to be at their fittest for donations.

Another is because the humans (or rather the establishment) are afraid of the clones (the individual/minority) as they are unsure as to what they are capable of

So why is there Confinement in Never Let Me Go?

Ishiguro shows the presence of confinement to establish the point of how people are afraid of change no matter where it is and what it's for and will do their best to hide it away where possible.

Ishiguro also shows confinement to emphasize the fact that to those in the story (the humans), the clones are merely organ 'machines' for medical science. It shows just how cold-hearted the human race really is and that we isolate and contain the things which we need in order to assure we never lose it. To them, the organs are very important as it can cure many otherwise incurable diseases. The confinement gives the impression that we care little for those who help us in every way possible by putting them away and out of sight for the benefit of our health.

Another reason Kazuo Ishiguro shows confinement is to show the weakness of the human race. We would prefer to hide away the clones from fear and also 'ethics' or 'morals' than face up to the fact of wrong and change how they were treated.